Towson, MD – Senior Dan Muller scored his fourth goal of the game on a 35-yard shot as time expired to give the third-seed Minutemen of Massachusetts a 13-12 victory over the second-seed Hofstra Pride in a Colonial Athletic Association Championship semifinal contest at Johnny Unitas Stadium Thursday night.

The UMass victory negated a Hofstra rally from six goals down in the third quarter and a five goal, one assist performance by Hofstra senior Josh Byrne and four goals by freshman Ryan Tierney. UMass (7-7) will meet top-seed Towson (9-4) in the CAA Championship on Saturday at 1 p.m.

With the loss, Hofstra (11-3) will have to wait around until Sunday night to see if they will receive an at-large bid to the 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship when the field of 17 is announced on ESPNU at 9 p.m.

In addition to Byrne's six-point night that gives him 41 goals and 25 assists on the season, Tierney's four goals give him 31 on the year. Junior Brendan Kavanagh tallied two goals and two assists.

UMass was led by Muller with four goals and one assist, freshman Jesse Leung and sophomore Ben Spencer with two goals each and classmate Dom St. Laurent and senior Grant Consoletti with one goal and two assists each. UMass goalie D.J. Smith made just five saves for the victory.

Hofstra struck first just 1:46 into the contest as Tierney took a pass from Brendan Kavanagh behind the goal and fired a bullet past Towson goalie D.J. Smith for his 28th goal of the year. But UMass answered with two goals by Dan Muller before the end of the period to take a 2-1 lead. Muller tallied the Minutemen's first goal just 1:11 after the Pride goal to tie the contest and then notched his second of the game and 19th of the year with 5:37 to play in the period for the 2-1 lead after one quarter.

The Pride evened the game at 2-2 with 10:37 to play in the half when Byrne fired a shot from 15 yards out for his 37th goal of the season.

But UMass replied with four unanswered goals to open up a 5-2 lead. Ben Spencer started the run with his 14th goal of the year off a pass from Dom St. Laurent just 45 seconds after the Hofstra goal. Just 24 seconds after that, Jesse Leung tallied his 10th goal of the season on the crease off a pass from Grant Consoletti for a 4-2 lead. Just 45 seconds after Leung's goal, Jeff Trainor scored his 10th of the season for a 5-2 advantage with 8:43 to play in the half. UMass bumped the lead to 6-2 with 2:57 to play in the half as Leung scored his second of the game from Tyler Bogart.

Hofstra stopped the run with 1:47 to play when Byrne scored his second of the game and 38th of the year, off a pass from Dylan Alderman, to close the gap to 6-3. But Muller scored his third of the game, on the man-up, for UMass with 1:14 to play in the half and Consoletti added his ninth of the year from Trainor with 0:10 remaining for an 8-3 halftime lead. The Minutemen outshot the Pride, 24-10 in the half including 14-5 in the six-goal, second quarter. UMass also won 10 of 13 face-offs in the half. Hofstra was also 0-4 on the man-up.

UMass extended their run in the third quarter as Dom St. Laurent scored his sixth of the year at the 9:22 mark to boost the lead to 9-3. But Ryan Tierney ended the run for Hofstra with his second of the game and 29th of the year with 7:31 to play in the third. The Minutemen got the goal back at the 6:11 mark when Tyler Bogart notched his 25th goal of the season off a pass from St. Laurent to bump the lead to 10-4.

The Pride responded with three unanswered goals beginning with a man-up goal by Brendan Kavanagh, off a pass from Dale Stasco with 4:03 to play in the third. Kavanagh scored his second of the game and 23rd of the season off a short pass from Byrne just 25 seconds later. Then, defender Michael Diener scooped up the ensuing face-off, charged the UMass zone and fired a bullet past Smith for his second goal of the season to close the deficit to 10-7 with 3:28 to play in the period.

UMass ended the Pride run just 23 seconds into the fourth quarter while on the man-up as Ben Spencer got the hat-trick in the game and his ninth of the season off a pass from Muller for an 11-7 advantage.

But Hofstra replied with three goals in a 1:59 span as part of a four goal run to tie the game at 11-11. Byrne scored his third of the game at the 12:44 mark, and Tierney scored his third and fourth of the game at the 11:52 and 10:45 marks to close within one at 11-10. Byrne then tied the game with his fourth of the contest at the 5:24 mark.

UMass took a 12-11 lead just 18 seconds later as Dylan Grader scored off a pass from Mike McDonough while on the man-down. But Byrne came up big for Hofstra with his fifth of the contest with 4:14 to play in the fourth to tie the game at 12-all.

On the winning UMass goal, there was a stoppage of play after an over and back violation on the Pride with one second remaining and Hofstra on the man-up. Muller then scooped up the ball and fired a 35-yard bullet past Hofstra junior goalie Jack Concanon (11 saves) for the winner.

UPDATE:
Both Byrne and Tierney were named to the 2017 CAA All-Tournament team. Towson defeated UMass, 9-4 in the CAA Championship game. Tiger goalie Matt Hoy was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.